Book Image

Linux for System Administrators

By : Viorel Rudareanu, Daniil Baturin
Book Image

Linux for System Administrators

By: Viorel Rudareanu, Daniil Baturin

Overview of this book

Linux system administration is an essential aspect of maintaining and managing Linux servers within an organization. The role of a Linux system administrator is pivotal in ensuring the smooth functioning and security of these servers, making it a critical job function for any company that relies on Linux infrastructure. This book is a comprehensive guide designed to help you build a solid foundation in Linux system administration. It takes you from the fundamentals of Linux to more advanced topics, encompassing key areas such as Linux system installation, managing user accounts and filesystems, networking fundamentals, and Linux security techniques. Additionally, the book delves into the automation of applications and infrastructure using Chef, enabling you to streamline and optimize your operations. For both newcomers getting started with Linux and professionals looking to enhance their skills, this book is an invaluable hands-on guide with a structured approach and concise explanations that make it an effective resource for quickly acquiring and reinforcing Linux system administration skills. With the help of this Linux book, you’ll be able to navigate the world of Linux administration confidently to meet the demands of your role.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Linux Basics
7
Part 2: Configuring and Modifying Linux Systems
13
Part 3: Linux as a Part of a Larger System

Memory discovery

Discovering the amount of memory is often even more practically important than discovering CPU features. It is required to plan application deployment, choose the size of a swap partition, and estimate whether you need to install more memory already.

However, the kernel interfaces for memory discovery are not as rich as those for discovering CPU features. For example, it is impossible to find out how many memory slots a system has, how many of them are used, and what the sizes of memory sticks installed in those slots using the kernel interface are alone. At least on some architectures, it is possible to obtain that information, but from the firmware rather than from the kernel, as we will see later in the dmidecode section.

Moreover, information from the kernel can be misleading for beginners who are unfamiliar with Linux kernel conventions. First, let us look at that information and then discuss how to interpret it.

First, we will look at the output of the...